14 Ethereal Forge Academy (1/2)

Darius buried his face in his hands as the feeling of impending doom slowly began to creep up on him.

”Look, Darius, think of what you'll get if you win. You'll be able to do whatever it is you want. Trust me, if anything this whole arrangement helps you more than it does me. Drink?”

Darius stared at Lionel in disbelief, ”No I don't want a fucking Drink! I want to keep my life Lionel. Whatever this thing is, I'm not doing it. Go find someone else to die for you.”

”The thing is, you're kinda already in the system and there's really no turning back from this point. Even if you ran they'd still just hunt you down, find you, and throw you in the pit anyway.”

At this point Darius was hyperventilating. He was now completely certain he was going to die tomorrow.

”I can tell what you're thinking and no, you're not going to die tomorrow, well probably not. A lot more people survive than you'd think.” Lionel said curtly.

Darius could do nothing but sigh, ”I don't have a choice do I?”

”Not anymore.” Lionel said quite frankly

Darius took in a deep breath, ”Alright then.”

”In that case the first test starts tomorrow, It's held at an academy called Ethereal Forge Academy, just outside the city. Since you don't have anywhere to stay, the taxi can take you there immediately.”

Lionel stood up and walked out of the booth. In Darius' mind, if Lionel hadn't saved him the other day he would've been dead anyway, so was there really any difference?

Darius wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. Trying his best to let go of fear. He got up, grabbed his hammer and decided that if he wasn't going to do what it took to make the most of it, then his life wouldn't be worth living anyway.

He walked out of the booth, not certain of the future, but whatever it was he felt prepared to face it. He walked confidently up the stairs and into the taxi.

”Take me to Ethereal Forge Academy.”

It dinged in response and flew of as fast as ever. It had taken several minutes for Darius to realize that where he was going wasn't in the city at all as the taxi soared over the great wall, leaving it behind.

Outside the wall were mainly open, green fields and several small, scattered villages here and there. Three of the four night time moons had come out now and cast a pale silver glow over the land.

The academy was quite far from the city as even with the sphere's incredible speed it still took Darius about half an hour to get there.

Darius was surprised at the immense size of the academy. It was actually several times larger than the guild. It was a gigantic dome covered in some sort of transparent material several kilometers in diameter and hundreds of stories high. The material made a gap for the pod as soon as it came near, almost as if it was sentient. Darius could not help but marvel at the sight. As the pod descended and came to a halt Darius found himself standing in front of two armed guards in some sort of courtyard, right in front of a large building the size of a palace. The dome was simply too large and was more like a city, with a myriad of different building inside that Darius barely had the time to register.

”Lord Darius?” said one of the guards. Darius was rather surprised by the respectful tone in the guards voice as he nodded his head. Not used to being spoken to in such a way.